1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scenario edit device which edits a scenario for a multi-media application, and particularly, it relates to a scenario edit device capable of editing a scenario primarily by an intuitive operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a multi-media application, there is an application having a hyperlink structure which allows shifting from one screen to another one by a user""s pressing a button on the display screen presenting image data, text data, sound data, button and the like, with a predetermined pointer. When editing a scenario of the application having such a hyperlink structure, edit for the screen shift processing is essential to decide which presentation screen to be selected by which press of a button.
As a conventional tool for editing a scenario having a hyperlink structure, there are a xe2x80x9cToolBookxe2x80x9d disclosed in the article xe2x80x9cToolBook User""s Manualxe2x80x9d (issued by Asymetrix, 1994) and a xe2x80x9cHyperCardxe2x80x9d disclosed in the article xe2x80x9cThe HyperCardxe2x80x9d (issued by B.N.S. Inc. on Mar. 31, 1988).
FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing an example of a constitution of a portion relative to the screen shift edit according to the conventional scenario edit tool such as the xe2x80x9cToolBookxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cHyperCardxe2x80x9d. As illustrated in FIG. 23, the conventional scenario edit device comprises a scenario storage unit 2305 for storing a scenario for a multi-media application including the presentation screen shift, an edit image creating unit 2306 creating an edit image including the presentation screen designated by the scenario, an image display unit 2307 for displaying the edit image created by the edit image creating unit 2306, an input control unit 2301 controlling input signal from an input device such as a mouse, a keyboard or the like, and preserving information of the position of a pointing cursor and the key stroke, a script edit unit 2302 editing a script described in the scenario on the basis of the information from the input control unit 2301, a screen shift attribute changing unit 2303 changing a screen shift attribute described in the scenario on the basis of the information from the input control unit 2301, and a presentation screen switching unit 2304 switching the presentation screen included in the edit image which the edit image creating unit 2306 creates on the basis of the information from the input control unit 2301.
FIG. 24 is a view showing an example of components of the scenario information stored by the scenario storage unit 2305. The scenario information indicated in FIG. 24 includes the information such as the name of a presentation screen, a script corresponding to the presentation screen, a multi-media data name to be presented on the presentation screen, the presentation screen name of a link destination and the condition of a screen shift.
FIG. 25 is a view, which is created by the edit image creating unit 2306, for use in describing one example of the edit image displayed by the image display unit 2307. FIG. 26 is a view for use in describing one example of the edit screen in the case of editing a script by the script edit unit 2302. FIG. 27 is a view for use in describing one example of the edit screen in the case of editing the screen attribute by the screen shift attribute changing unit 2303.
A movement in the screen shift edit by the use of the above conventional scenario edit device will be described in FIGS. 23 to 27.
Assume that the scenario indicated in FIG. 24 is stored in the scenario storage unit 2305. An operation of editing the screen shift toward the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_3xe2x80x9d by the operation toward the multi-media data xe2x80x9cBUTTON_22xe2x80x9d on the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_2xe2x80x9d will be as follows.
The display image switching unit 2304, upon receipt of the instruction xe2x80x9cStart the edit of the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_2xe2x80x9dxe2x80x9d from the information preserved in the input control unit 2301, instructs the edit image creating unit 2306 to create the edit image of the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_2xe2x80x9d. The edit image creating unit 2306 creates the edit image including the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_2xe2x80x9d as illustrated in FIG. 25. The image display unit 2307 displays the created edit image. The script edit unit 2302, upon receipt of the instruction xe2x80x9cStart the script edit of the presentation screen presented in the edit image being displayed on the image display unit 2307xe2x80x9d from the information preserved in the input control unit 2301, starts the script edit (refer to FIG. 26) of the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_2xe2x80x9d. The edit of the script characters enables the screen shift edit into the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_3xe2x80x9d by the operation toward the multi-media data xe2x80x9cBUTTON_22xe2x80x9d presented on the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_2xe2x80x9d.
An edit operation, according to the above conventional scenario edit device, for shifting the screen to the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_6xe2x80x9d by the operation toward the multi-media data xe2x80x9cBUTTON_13xe2x80x9d presented on the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_1xe2x80x9d will be as follows.
The presentation screen switching unit 2304, upon receipt of the instruction xe2x80x9cStart the edit of the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_1xe2x80x9dxe2x80x9d from the information preserved in the input control unit 2301, instructs the edit image creating unit 2306 to create the edit image of the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_1xe2x80x9d. The edit image creating unit 2306 creates the edit image including the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_1xe2x80x9d. The image display unit 2307 displays the created edit image. The screen shift attribute changing unit 2303, upon receipt of the instruction xe2x80x9cStart the edit of the screen shift attribute of the multi-media data presented in the edit image being displayed on the image display unit 2307xe2x80x9d from the information preserved in the input control unit 2301, edits the dialogue box for the screen shift attribute as for the multi-media data xe2x80x9cBUTTON_13xe2x80x9d (refer to FIG. 27), and selectively determines the presentation screen to which this screen is shifted and the condition of the screen shift. This enables the screen shift edit into the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_6xe2x80x9d by the operation toward the multi-media data xe2x80x9cBUTTON_13xe2x80x9d presented on the presentation screen xe2x80x9cSCENE_1xe2x80x9d.
The conventional scenario edit device, however, requires the edit of a script language, the selection of the presentation screen name of a shift destination as the attribute of each multi-media data and the input of the same, as mentioned above. Owing to this, it is necessary for an editor to have a fair knowledge of the script language and memorize the presentation screen name of a shift destination, which results in a great burden to the editor.
Further, it is impossible for the conventional scenario edit device to do such a visual and intuitive edit work as to discriminate a presentation screen and a screen shift processing at a glance, create the screen shift processing, change the screen of a shift destination and delete the screen shift processing, thereby resulting in a poor working efficiency.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a scenario edit device in which, on the edit screen for editing a scenario for a multi-media application, presentation screens presented at execution of the application are made into icons and the relation of the screen shift between the presentation screens is expressed by an arrow or the like so that a hyperlink structure can be viewed at a glance and a scenario editor can understand the structure of the scenario visually and intuitively, thereby improving the working efficiency of the edit work.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a scenario edit device capable of editing a scenario about the screen shift by such an intuitive operation as to create the screen shift operation with an arrow drawn between icons of the presentation screens, change a shift destination and a shift source while changing an arrow and delete the screen shift operation by deleting an arrow, without requesting the scenario editor to learn the script language and memorize the name of the presentation screen of the shift destination, thereby reducing the burden of the scenario editor.
A third object of the present invention is, in addition to the above two objects, to provide a scenario edit device capable of making the confirmation by a scenario editor easy and steady, and reducing the errors in the created scenario, by performing an edit work with an visual and intuitive operation.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a scenario edit device in which, in the case where the size of the region of the edit image for use in the edit work is larger than the display size of the presentation screen, an edit image with a scroll bar is created and displayed on the display screen, so as to edit the whole edit image by the operation of the scroll bar, and an edit work can be performed also on the scenario including a lot of presentation screens in the complicated shift relation, with a visual and intuitive operation, thereby preventing decrease in the working efficiency.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a scenario edit device in which, in the case where the size of the region of the edit image for use in the edit work is larger than the display size of the display screen, the display screen is divided into a non-scroll region and a scroll region, and with a certain node icon displayed in the non-scroll region, the edit work can be performed visually and intuitively about the shift between icons which cannot be displayed on the display screen at once, thereby preventing decrease in the working efficiency.
According to the first aspect of the invention, a scenario edit device for editing a scenario for a multi-media application including description about a shift of a presentation screen, comprises
a scenario storage means for storing the scenario;
a node icon creating means for creating a node icon indicating a presentation screen described in the scenario;
a link graphic creating means for creating a link graphic expressing the presentation screen shift;
an edit image creating means creating an edit image with the node icon and the link graphic disposed thereon;
an edit-time display manner storage means for storing an edit-time display manner including information on at least the display position of the node icon within the edit image; and
a screen display means for displaying the edit image created by said edit image creating means.
In the preferred construction, the node icon creating means comprises a data icon creating means for creating data icons indicating multi-media data to be presented on the presentation screen corresponding to the node icon during execution of an application as for each node icon, and a data icon disposing means for disposing the corresponding data icons within the node icon.
In the preferred construction, the node icon creating means comprises a data icon creating means for creating data icons each formed in a reduction image of multi-media data or in a schematic graphic indicating the multi-media data to be presented on the presentation screen corresponding to the node icon during execution of an application as for each node icon, and a data icon disposing means for disposing the corresponding data icons within the node icon.
In another preferred construction, the scenario edit device further comprises an input control means for controlling input signal entered from a given input device by use of the edit image displayed on said image display means and preserving information on the input signal, and a screen shift changing means for detecting a given operation regarding an edit for a screen shift processing from the information preserved in said input control means, and updating the scenario stored in said scenario storage means according to the content of the above edit operation.
In another preferred construction, the scenario edit device further comprises an input control means for controlling input signal entered from a given input device by use of the edit image displayed on said image display means and preserving information on the input signal, and a screen shift changing means for detecting a given operation regarding an edit for a screen shift processing, including at least an operation of drawing a link graphic, an operation of changing a link source or a link destination of the link graphic being displayed, and an operation of deleting the link graphic being displayed, from the information preserved in said input control means, and updating the scenario stored in said scenario storage means according to the content of the above edit operation,
the screen shift changing means, in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of drawing a link graphic, adds a screen shift processing indicated by the added link graphic on to the scenario stored in said scenario storage means, in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of changing a link source or a link destination of the link graphic, changes the corresponding shift source or shift destination indicated by the changed link graphic in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means, and in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of deleting the link graphic, deletes the corresponding screen shift processing indicated by the deleted link graphic in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means.
According to the second aspect of the invention, a scenario edit device for editing a scenario for a multi-media application including description about a shift of a presentation screen, comprises
a scenario storage means for storing the scenario;
a node icon creating means for creating a node icon indicating a presentation screen described in the scenario;
a link graphic creating means for creating a link graphic expressing the presentation screen shift.
an edit image creating means for creating an edit image with the node icon and the link graphic disposed thereon,
an edit-time display manner storage means for storing an edit-time display manner including information on at least the display position of the node icon within the edit image,
a scroll control means for instructing said edit image creating means to create an edit image with a scroll bar attached there depending on necessity when the size of a region of the edit image created by said edit image creating means is larger than the display size of the display screen on said image display means,
a screen shift analyzing means for analyzing the information on the screen shift described in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means and the information on the display position of the node icon stored in said edit-time display manner storage means, and instructing said edit image creating means to display a link graphic with a tag indicating a link destination or a link source, in stead of the link graphic which can be displayed within the edit screen because the size of the edit image is larger than the size of the display screen, and
a screen display means for displaying the edit image created by said edit image creating means.
In the preferred construction, the node icon creating means comprises a data icon creating means for creating data icons indicating multi-media data to be presented on the presentation screen corresponding to the node icon during execution of an application as for each node icon, and a data icon disposing means for disposing the corresponding data icons within the node icon.
In the preferred construction, the node icon creating means comprises a data icon creating means for creating data icons each formed in a reduction image of multi-media data or in a schematic graphic indicating the multi-media data to be presented on the presentation screen corresponding to the node icon during execution of an application as for each node icon, and a data icon disposing means for disposing the corresponding data icons within the node icon.
In another preferred construction, the scenario edit device further comprises an input control means for controlling input signal entered from a given input device by use of the edit image displayed on said image display means and preserving information on the input signal, and a screen shift changing means for detecting a given operation regarding an edit for a screen shift processing from the information preserved in said input control means, and updating the scenario stored in said scenario storage means according to the content of the above edit operation.
In another preferred construction, the scenario edit device further comprises an input control means for controlling input signal entered from a given input device by use of the edit image displayed on said image display means and preserving information on the input signal, and a screen shift changing means for detecting a given operation regarding an edit for a screen shift processing, including at least an operation of drawing a link graphic, an operation of changing a link source or a link destination of the link graphic being displayed, and an operation of deleting the link graphic being displayed, from the information preserved in said input control means, and updating the scenario stored in said scenario storage means according to the content of the above edit operation,
the screen shift changing means, in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of drawing a link graphic, adds a screen shift processing indicated by the added link graphic on to the scenario stored in said scenario storage means, in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of changing a link source or a link destination of the link graphic, changes the corresponding shift source or shift destination indicated by the changed link graphic in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means, and in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of deleting the link graphic, deletes the corresponding screen shift processing indicated by the deleted link graphic in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means.
According to the third aspect of the invention, a scenario edit device for editing a scenario for a multi-media application including description about a shift of a presentation screen, comprises
a scenario storage means for storing the scenario;
a node icon creating means for creating a node icon indicating a presentation screen described in the scenario;
a link graphic creating means for creating a link graphic expressing the presentation screen shift;
an edit image creating means for creating an edit image with the node icon and the link graphic disposed thereon;
an edit-time display manner storage means for storing an edit-time display manner including information on at least the display position of the node icon within the edit image;
a scroll control means for instructing said edit image creating means to create an edit image with a scroll bar attached there depending on necessity when the size of a region of the edit image created by said edit image creating means is larger than the display size of the display screen on said image display means;
a screen shift analyzing means for analyzing the information on the screen shift described in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means and the information on the display position of the node icon stored in said edit-time display manner storage means, and instructing said edit image creating means to display a link graphic with a tag indicating a link destination or a link source, in stead of the link graphic which can be displayed within the edit screen because the size of the edit image is larger than the size of the display screen;
a non-scroll edit image creating means, in the case where said edit image creating means creates an edit image with a scroll bar attached there by the control of said scroll control means, for creating a non-scroll edit image, that is not scrolled, independent of the edit image with a scroll bar,
an image display means for displaying the edit image created by said edit image creating means, and in the case where said edit image creating means creates an edit image with a scroll bar by the control of said scroll control means and said non-scroll edit image creating means creates a non-scroll edit image, for displaying the display screen divided into a scroll region for displaying the edit image with a scroll bar and a non-scroll display region for displaying the non-scroll edit image;
an input control means for controlling input signal entered from a given input device by use of the edit image displayed on said image display means or the display image consisting of a scroll region and a non-scroll region, and preserving information on the input signal;
a screen shift changing means for detecting a given operation regarding an edit for a screen shift processing from the information preserved in said input control means, and updating the scenario stored in said scenario storage means according to the content of the above edit operation; and
a non-scroll display specification means for detecting an operation of displaying the node icon in the non-scroll region displayed on the display screen of said image display means, from the information preserved in said input control means, and changing the edit-time display manner stored in said edit-time display manner storage means so that the corresponding node icon can be displayed in the non-scroll region, according to the content of the operation.
In the preferred construction, the screen shift changing means, in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of drawing a link graphic, adds a screen shift processing indicated by the added link graphic on to the scenario stored in said scenario storage means, in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of changing a link source or a link destination of the link graphic, changes the corresponding shift source or shift destination indicated by the changed link graphic in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means, and in the case where the content of the detected edit operation means the operation of deleting the link graphic, deletes the corresponding screen shift processing indicated by the deleted link graphic in the scenario stored in said scenario storage means.
In another preferred construction, the screen shift changing means, while handling an edit of a link graphic consisting of a scroll region and a non-scroll region, which is displayed on the display screen of said image display unit, similarly to the edit of a link graphic within the edit image created by said edit image creating means, updates the scenario stored in said scenario storage means according to the content of the edit operation, and the screen shift analyzing means, in the case of entering a link graphic consisting of a scroll region and a non-scroll region, which is displayed on the display screen of said image display unit, instructs said edit image creating means to display the link graphic with a tag reflecting the content of the operation at a link source or a link destination specified by the operation.
Further objects, features and effects of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description.